


Reconciliation

by Polerfan1986



Series: I'm Sorry Dearie but... [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dark Castle Fluff, Emotions, F/M, Fluff, Reconciliation, Rumple and Belle are reunited by the birth of their child, Rumple is Belle's midwife, belle gives birth, birth of a baby, labor, lots of emotion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 15:09:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8106982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polerfan1986/pseuds/Polerfan1986
Summary: Part two of I'm Sorry Dearie but... Belle and Rumple have been at the Dark Castle for nine months and Belle is ready to have their baby anytime.  She and Rumple are reconciled when he helps her through the birth.





	

It was a bleak day in the Enchanted forest, grey and black clouds hung over the sky and torrential rain poured from the heavens, thunder rumbling in the distance began to travel closer and the lightning flashed across the sky.

Rumplestiltskin was out, he had hardly been in the castle since they had arrived back in the Enchanted Forest and when he was he could barely look at Belle or be in the same room as her and it wasn't uncommon for him to be gone for days at time.

Belle was now heavily pregnant and Rumplestiltskin had made a point of telling her some weeks ago that she was absolutely forbidden from leaving the castle in her condition, he had also forbidden her from doing any work around the castle whatsoever when they had first arrived back and over the past few months he had taken to enchanting some of the objects around castle so that they would do the work themselves.

She missed Rumple dreadfully, she would fall asleep at night in her own rooms clutching her pillow close to her because the bed felt empty without him. Here they were the only two in this vast castle and yet they had never been farther apart from each other in their lives. His words to her in Storybrooke had been hurtful and she knew that she was not blameless for what had happened between the two of them, it took two people to make a marriage and two people to break a marriage and she deserved some portion of his anger just as he deserved some of hers.

She shook her head softly it would only distress her to think too much on it now and stress wouldn’t be good for the baby.

She frowned when she looked among her shelves for the maternity books she had asked Rumplestiltskin for a few months ago and noticed that at least two of them were missing, strange but it was possible that she had simply misplaced them, it had happened often enough recently, she would find one of them in great hall or in the kitchen when she could have sworn that she had left them in the library, so Belle thought nothing more of it.

She curled up on the chaise by the fireside in her library and read as she had always done, wrapped in a blanket, snug and warm with a book in hand as a dustpan and broom moved past her sweeping the floor by themselves and a feather duster worked at the ceiling overhead and around the windows. She gingerly rubbed her stomach as she felt another pain in her back that seemed to travel right through her, she had been feeling these pains all morning and now she was starting to become very uncomfortable.

What if she was going into labour here on her own with no one to help her, what would she do? As another clap of thunder sounded Belle glanced out of the windows and whispered "hurry back Rumplestiltskin" as she felt another wave of pain.

Rumplestiltskin was in a bar, not drinking but just sitting staring aimlessly at the pint glass in front of him, he had been there for hours. He had strangely enough not reverted to his old scaly skinned self when they returned to the Enchanted Forest and he largely put this down to his now purified heart but all of his powers had remained with him.

He was lonely and heart sore over Belle, he couldn’t even bring himself to look at her most days because if he did, he would only want to scoop her up and hold her in his arms, it had only gotten harder for him as she’d started to show.

He knew he had wounded her with his harsh words back on the docks in Storybrooke, he had been blinded with anger at the time and even though a lot of it was fairly directed at her, he still missed her terribly. They hadn’t spoken or been in each other’s company much since they’d arrived back at the castle, he’d given her a room on the same floor as his but at the opposite end of the long hall and he had built a nursery for the baby in a room in the middle of the hall that had previously been sitting empty and which would be within easy reach of both of himself and Belle.

He had also been sneaking Belle’s maternity books in and out of her library to read them himself, of course he had been a father before but he had not been allowed to witness Bae's birth and he wanted to be sure of everything. Most importantly he had been reading a lot about the actual labor itself because he knew that he would have to deliver the child himself as no midwife would dare set foot near his castle.

Belle had changed since he had brought her back to the castle, she no longer harboured such a fierce obsession with heroism these days he had noticed, no doubt because she was away from those hypocrites in Storybrooke and already knew that she didn't have to prove herself to him on that score. She never had to, she had already long been his hero just for loving him. He sighed he desperately wanted them to find a way back to each other.

Just then he heard a voice on the wind call his name "Rum..ple…stilt…skin, Rum..ple" it was Belle and she sounded like she was in distress, he was gone in the blink of an eye and a haze of smoke leaving a few coins on the bar for the drink he hadn’t even touched.

When he appeared back in the castle he found himself in the library and Belle was on her hands and knees on the floor near her chaise, moaning in pain, a book lay open face down beside her where it had obviously slipped from her grasp and there was a puddle of liquid around her streaked with a little blood.

"BELLE" he cried out as he knelt before her.

"Rum…Rumple.." she gasped as the pain hit her again "the…baby…baby is coming….now."

"Alright Belle" he said scooping her up gently in his arms "AAHH" she cried out flinching.

"It’s alright sweetheart I’ve got you, I'm here" he said as they appeared in his bedroom and he laid her on the bed, her light dress was off of her in a split second, she was down to her chemise and there a sheet was placed on top of her and she felt Rumple push her legs wide apart. Rumple clicked his fingers to summon everything he needed, he dipped a cloth into a bowl of cool water and dabbed her forehead with it as she cried out again.

"Rumple I’m scared" she whispered as she began to sob.

"Oh Belle" he said as he ran his hand down her cheek, "don’t be scared sweetheart, you have nothing to be scared about, you are going to have this baby and you will both be fine I promise you, I'm here for you Belle, I won't let anything happen to you or the baby" he said trying to comfort her.

He gently urged her to sit up a bit more and leaned around to press his hand against her lower back.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Easing your pain as much as I can my darling" he replied as he let the healing magic seep into her skin.

He was surprised to feel her tentatively wrap her arms around him as he kept his hand at her back and he in return brought his other arm around her, "I’m sorry" she whispered weakly into his ear, tears still running down her face "for everything I did to you that I shouldn't have done, I love you and I need you."

"Oh Belle" he said completely breaking own and gently bringing his forehead to touch hers "I’m sorry too" he choked as began to cry, "I’m so sorry for everything I love you too, so much, I know I said some harsh things that day on the docks but I never stopped loving you, all I’ve wanted to do for the past nine months is hold you in my arms and then when you started to show" he said "I wanted to hold you even more and never let you go."

The pain hit Belle again and she shrieked out loud "RUMPLE" and clutched on tightly to Rumplestiltskin who felt her entire body shudder in agony.

"Alright sweetheart, alright" he said soothingly as he moved away until he was right in front of her and checking between her legs.

"Belle" he said as glanced back up at her "you’re fully dilated, you’re going to have to start pushing for me sweetheart."

Belle grunted harshly and screamed again, feeling nauseated as she began to push "Rumple I don’t know if I can do this" she cried out as her body was wracked with pain and Rumplestiltskin grabbed her hand.

"Yes you can sweetheart" he urged her "you can do it, come on give me another push Belle" he said as he moved and lowered his head to look between her legs again.

He found himself wincing as he felt Belle almost break his fingers when she pushed again.

"Belle I can see the head" he told her "so I need you to keep pushing, your almost there Belle, it’s almost over sweetheart, don’t give up now" he urged her as he saw how exhausted she was.

Belle felt an intense pressure and strong burning sensation, "Rumple it hurts so much" she cried before pushing and screaming again.

"I know it does sweetheart" he said "but your almost there, breathe between the contractions Belle" he urged her like this he demonstrated as he blew and panted and she began to imitate his actions.

"That’s it breathe, good girl" he said "and push again for me sweetheart" he said as he watched the baby’s head advancing until it crowned.

"Rumple" Belle said when she noticed he was crying again, he did not look up from between her legs but she clearly heard him say "I can see our baby’s face sweetheart."

The room was filled with her shrieks as she pushed and screamed again and Rumple saw the baby’s head fully emerge. He immediately used his magic to clear around the baby's nose and make sure that he or she was breathing normally then he checked around the baby’s neck to make sure the umbilical cord wasn’t anywhere that it shouldn’t be.

The baby’s head turned to the side and Rumple knew this was it "Belle I know your exhausted but I need two more big pushes from you and we’ll have our baby, I know you can do it sweetheart" he encouraged her.

She nodded weakly and pushed again letting out an ear-splitting shriek that pierced right through Rumplestiltskin's heart.

"That’s it sweetheart now one more big push, just one more, come on my darling."

Belle screamed as she gave her last push and felt the baby slide out of her body. She fell gently back against the pillows simply exhausted while Rumple immediately cut the cord and cleaned and dried the baby. "Belle" Rumple said softly "I’m so proud of you sweetheart, you were amazing and look we have a daughter" he sobbed as he brought the baby in the towel to her mother.

Belle reached out for the baby and began to sob again as she stared at the wriggling, crying pink bundle that Rumple passed into her arms.

"A baby girl" she choked out full of emotion as Rumple brought over a blanket and Belle wrapped it around their little girl.

They were both dumbstruck as they stared at their baby, the physical representation of all their love for each other cradled in Belle's arms. About twenty minutes later Belle told Rumple that she felt the need to push again. "It's alright sweetheart, it's only the placenta" he reassured her before stepping back to check on her again.

"Alright Belle" he said to her as she cradled the baby "I need you to push, just a gentle push this time to get the placenta out, you shouldn’t feel any pain this time" so Belle pushed and the placenta came slipping out of her easily enough.

Rumple checked Belle’s delicate flesh between her legs, it had been a rough birth and she was a small woman. He pressed his hand ever so tenderly over her womb and and nether regions to heal her and then he reverently wiped up every drop of blood and fluid from her skin, while she cooed at their baby.

Everything else like the sheets and the bed and his own hands he cleaned away with magic which he also used to dispose of the placenta.

He sat beside her and leaned down to embrace her as she held their daughter.

"We made her" he said sobbing, "our love made this beautiful, tiny, precious little girl, oh Belle she’s beautiful just like you, she’s my little beauty."

"She is beautiful" Belle murmured with a huge smile on her face, "had you thought of any names" she asked him.

"Well I thought perhaps you might want to choose a name sweetheart" he replied.

"We’ll pick one now then, something good, something that represents our love" she said and then inspiration struck and Rumple murmured softly "what about the name Rose if you’ll have it that is" he said immediately reminding her of the day here in this castle when he’d presented her with a rose.

Granted that one had actually been Gaston but it wasn’t the only rose Rumple had given her, he had a garden full of beautiful rose bushes and after the first, he’d presented her with one everyday.

She nodded "Rose, I like that Rose Colette after my mother as well" she added.

"Beautiful" he said nodding in agreement as he kissed her forehead.

"Rumple" Belle asked him suddenly "how did you know how to handle the birth?"

"I uh may have been reading a lot of material from your books about it recently" he said looking a tad guilty

Oh so that's why I always found them lying in odd places around the castle she said beginning to smile, you knew no one would be brave enough to come here and that you would have to be my midwife didn’t you? she asked him.

"Yes" he whispered.

"Rumple" she said "I’m so glad it was you, I love you and I have something for you, take the chain out from under my chemise please" she told him. He had noticed her wearing that chain ever since they had returned to the castle, he would see it peaking out from the top of her dresses but until now that was all he had seen of it.

He slowly withdrew the chain from her chemise to reveal their wedding bands hanging on the end of it he started crying again, all these months even after everything he’d said to her that day she had kept his ring and her own.

"If you’ll have it" she said quietly as she held their daughter close. He slipped the chain over her neck and slowly held out his shaking hand to her.

Belle sobbed and taking his wedding band from the chain with one hand she slowly slid it back onto his finger. Rumple moved then clasping one of her hands in his while Belle used her other arm to cradle the baby close to her on the bed.

He slipped Belle’s much smaller ring back onto her dainty finger and raised her hand to his lips to kiss the back of it then hesitantly at first he leaned forward and captured her lips with his own for a gentle, loving kiss.

When he withdrew he shifted to lie on the bed beside her and lifted the baby into his own arms, he stroked Belle’s cheek and said to her "you're tired sweetheart, get some rest you’ve more than earned it and sleep safe in the knowledge that I love you and Rose and I will never let anything come between us or harm our child again.

Belle smiled and slipped into an exhausted but peaceful sleep, Rumple eventually fell asleep on the bed beside her with Rose dozing on his chest.

For the first time in many a year the family in the Dark Castle knew joy, peace and contentment that day and every day since.

**Author's Note:**

> So was all the angst of part one worth it for the fluff and emotion in part two? The only thing I could imagine that would be big enough to lead them back to each other was the birth of the baby because it rendered them both very emotional and open to each other. Also this is the first time I've ever written a birth scene so I hope it was alright. There will be a third part to this series.


End file.
